FORGE 

Copyright (c) 2001 Michael Howe

Forge is a two player game played on a NxM square board. I will consider here a 8x6 board.


MOVEMENT - A stone must move as far as it can (no jumps) in a forward direction (orthogonal or diagonal). 
At the first move, a player may choose any of his stones to move.
After that, a player must move a stone that is adjacent to the last moved enemy stone. If that is not possible, the player may choose any unblocked of his stones to move. 
There is no capturing.
GOAL  - Wins the player that moved the last stone.

There is a ZRF to play Forge with Zillions. I made some experiments with Zillions and it seems that Forge is a win for the 1st player (I have no proof!). The 3x4 board is a win in 7 turns for the 1st player. With a 5x4 board, the first player wins in 14 turns...

An example

The last move from White was c2-c1! and now White wins in 5 turns. Can you find the winning sequence?

Black must move d1-a4, then d6-e5, d5-d6, e6-d5, a1-d4 
(or a2-b3), e4-e3, a2-b3, d2-d1, e1-c3, e3-d2. 0-1